Underage marriage results child bride death in Yemen

SANA’A: Yemeni child bride, reportedly named as Rawan, has died due to internal injuries on her first marriage’s night in Haradh village, situated in the north-western tribal part of Yemen.

The underage marriage in the tribal area of Yemen finally resulted as painful death of the 8-year-old young bride, Rawan, who was allegedly forced to marry a groom five times elder than her, the non-governmental activists claimed.

Reports said that the underage bride was wedded to a man who believed to be around 40 years old while Rawan’s death caused due to internal bleeding sustained during her wedding night.

They activists demanded arrests to stop the practice of marrying very young girls to older men in the impoverished region.

The practice of child marriages is far-flung in Yemen which attracted attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw the kind of weddings.

High poverty level in the country played vital role in promoting such practices and more than a quarter of Yemen’s females got married before age 15, the Social Affairs Ministry’s 2010 reports revealed.

Yemen once imposed legislation for marriages which put age restriction of minimum 15 but the country’s parliament annulled the law in the 90s with stance that parents should decide when a daughter marries.